Liverpool vs Man City: Gerrard or De Bruyne, who is the greater legend?
7 October 2026 · Football
On GOATvs right now
- Steven Gerrard #53
- Kevin De Bruyne #72
- Mohamed Salah #31
- Sergio Agüero #120
- Kenny Dalglish #143
- Kevin De Bruyne vs Steven Gerrard 48% – 52%
- Mohamed Salah vs Kevin De Bruyne 57% – 43%
- Kenny Dalglish vs Sergio Agüero 49% – 51%
Liverpool host Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday 11 October, with kick-off at 4.30pm UK time. No fixture has shaped English football more over the last decade, and every meeting brings back the same argument between the two fan bases: whose legend was greater? On GOATvs the cleanest version of that question is a midfield one, Steven Gerrard against Kevin De Bruyne, and the box above shows how the world splits on it today.
Gerrard is the Liverpool story in one man. He came through the club's academy, made his debut in 1998 and became captain in 2003. His defining night came in Istanbul in 2005, when Liverpool were three goals down to AC Milan at half-time in the Champions League final. Gerrard headed the first goal of the comeback, won the penalty for the third, and lifted the trophy after the shoot-out. A year later he scored twice in the FA Cup final against West Ham, including a late long-range equaliser, and fans still call it the Gerrard final. He also won 114 caps for England. The one thing missing is a league title: Gerrard never won the Premier League.
De Bruyne is the other kind of great. City signed him from Wolfsburg in 2015, and over the next ten seasons he became the passer who made their attack work. He won six Premier League titles, the Champions League in 2023 as part of City's treble, and the PFA Players' Player of the Year award twice. In 2019-20 he made 20 assists in a single Premier League season, equalling the record set by Thierry Henry. He left City in 2025 and joined Napoli, so Sunday's game is one more reminder of the gap he left behind.
The vote comes down to what you value. Gerrard means loyalty, leadership and moments: one club, the captain's armband and finals turned around almost by himself. De Bruyne means control and trophies: the range of passing, the crosses into the space between defenders and goalkeeper, and a medal collection Gerrard never had the team around him to win. Neither answer is wrong, which is why the pick is so hard.
The rivalry has more than one face-off. Mohamed Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, led the attack that won the Champions League in 2019 and Liverpool's first league title in thirty years in 2020, and he against De Bruyne is the modern version of the same argument. Further back, Kenny Dalglish won three European Cups as a Liverpool player, while Sergio Agüero scored the goal in the last minute against QPR in 2012 that gave City their first league title in 44 years.
Whatever happens at Anfield, the vote stays open. Pick Gerrard or De Bruyne above, then try Salah against De Bruyne and Agüero against Dalglish, or see where all of them stand in the Football Top 100, ranked by everyone.
Vote: Kevin De Bruyne vs Steven Gerrard